Against the Gods (Web Novel)

“You…” Honorable Tai Yin had stood tall and proud even when injured from head to toe, but now he was bending and and shaking like a leaf. His blood drenched face was clearly etched with terrible pain.

Soon, his pupils weren’t the only things that turned green. Every bit of blood in his body had turned dark green as well.

The shaken Qu Hui looked at him before arriving by his side swiftly. He tried to hold Tai Yin steady. “Honorable Tai Yin, what’s wr…”

“Don’t come closer!” Tai Yin backed off in a panic and pushed Qu Hui away from him with a breeze. The energy he used was miniscule to say the least, but it was enough to cause his face to scrunch up and his knees to hit the ground. He could no longer even get back on his feet.

“Poison… It’s poison!” Tai Yin shouted painfully.

For all his years in the Eternal Heaven God Realm, Qu Hui had never heard so much terror from a Guardian.

“Poison… what poison?” Qu Hui’s voice was shaking as well. At Tai Yin’s level, what poison could possibly threaten him besides the Southern Divine Region’s ancient devilish poison? However, the answer came to him the second the question escaped his mouth. He blurted, “Could… could it be…”

“The Sky… Poison… Pearl…” Tai Yin couldn’t stop convulsing as he lay curled up like a prawn on the ground. The terrible poison had engulfed his entire body in an instant and covered every pore, and every cell in his body in despair. It was unlike any poison he had ever known in his life. It immediately enlightened him to the worst and only possibility.

The Sky Poison Pearl… There wasn’t a single person in the entire Eastern Divine Region who didn’t know that Yun Che was the master of the Heavenly Profound Treasure, the Sky Poison Pearl!

“...” Finally realizing what was going on, Qianye Ying’er shot a glance at Tai Yin and tried to say something, yet no words came out of her mouth.

She was going to say that their opponent was a Guardian, and their current course was too risky and aggressive. She was going to say that they weren’t going to be this lucky next time… But when she recalled how much Yun Che hated the Eastern Divine Region and especially the Eternal Heaven God Realm, she swallowed her chastising words with cold indifference.

The right time was still far into the future, so they might as well collect some blood drenched interest from this encounter!

Qu Hui had never seen the Sky Poison Pearl in action before, but the despair rolling off Honorable Tai Yin’s body was impossible to miss… That’s right, despair!

The despair of an Eternal Heaven Guardian!

Tai Yin looked like he was trying his best to climb back to his feet, but as the poison spread his breathing grew progressively weaker and more erratic. Judging from the way he was swaying on his legs, even kneeling was becoming an extraordinarily difficult task for him.

The terrible poison was devouring his life mercilessly like an ancient devil of the abyss. He couldn’t expel even a milliliter of poison from his body, much less destroy it.

Truthfully, the Sky Poison Pearl hadn’t recovered much power at all. If Tai Yin was at his peak and there was no outside interference, he could’ve outlasted the Sky Poison that was injected into his body.

But in his current state… the only scent he could smell, was death.

Slowly, Yun Che walked toward Tai Yin and Qu Hui while dragging the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor Sword behind him. A black, devilish scar was left on the ground.

Qu Hui was the leader of the Eternal Heaven Adjudicators, and Tai Yin was the sixth strongest Eternal Heaven Guardian. They were tall and utterly unreachable by Yun Che back then.

But now, every time he took a step, it felt like the death god himself was stepping on their souls.

Who could’ve thought that so much would change in just a couple of years?

Behind him, the Eternal Heaven Crown Prince was firmly under Qianye Ying’er’s control.

How lamentable, how sorrowful, how despairing.

They never thought they would encounter Yun Che here, much less lose to him this badly. The fight had lasted only a couple of breaths, but every fraction of a second was painted by the darkest nightmare.

Tai Yin tried to circulate his last bit of strength, but the Sky Poison immediately reacted by eating and destroying his life even faster than before. It was like a devil that was provoked into rage and madness.

Bang!

His upper body crashed heavily against the floor. The ground of absolute beginning beneath him started disappearing rapidly under the poison’s corrosion. Tai Yin lifted his hand to try to recall the Great Void Cauldron, but the unstable soul connection was ruthlessly severed the second the thought took form in his mind.

Yun Che sucked the Great Void Cauldron into his hand and completely enveloped it in darkness profound energy. Tai Yin’s consciousness couldn’t penetrate it at all.

“Trying… to run?” The corner of Yun Che’s mouth curled slightly. His sneer looked incredibly sinister to Tai Yin and Qu Hui.

Back when Qu Hui was the organizer and the supervisor of the Profound God Convention, Yun Che was nothing more than a talented, eye opening junior to him. But today, the pressure exuded by the approaching young man was absolutely stifling. The terror he felt when the devil emperor had shown up actually reappeared when he saw the sinister sneer on Yun Che’s face!

This pressure and terror wasn’t a product of Yun Che’s strength. No, it was the product of a darkness so deep and murky that it was impossible to describe… Everything they thought would never appear on someone like Yun Che had manifested at the peak.

“Yun… Che!” Tai Yin looked up and begged with a voice that sounded like sandpaper. “Let the young master go! In return, I’ll surrender the divine fruit and my life!”

Yun Che continued to walk with death accompanying his every step. He looked like he had heard a funny joke as his sneer turned even grimmer. “Your life? In my eyes, your life is cheaper than a dog’s! How dare you use it as a bargaining chip!?”

Undoubtedly, these were the most humiliating words Tai Yin had ever received in his life. His pupils focusing, he summoned the pride that had supported him throughout his life as a Guardian before saying, “If you don’t let the young master go… I’ll destroy the divine fruit immediately!”

The second he finished speaking, Yun Che’s figure suddenly became as transient as an illusion. Then, he shot toward Tai Yin like a black stinger from hell and plunged his sword into the Guardian’s body.

Bang!!

Near death and poisoned, Tai Yin’s divine body was as fragile as tofu to the Heaven Smiting Sword. The second the weapon pierced through his body, darkness profound energy and fire immediately spread and engulfed his skin, flesh, blood, bones, soul… everything. At the same time, the Sky Poison inside Tai Yin’s body exploded in full force.

Tai Yin’s eyes regained clarity during the final moments of his life and focused on Yun Che. The young man’s eyes were only inches away from his.

If they were as pure as diamond in the past, then they were as murky as the abyss now.

Crackle… crackle...

The Phoenix flame and Golden Crow flame clinging to Tai Yin’s body slowly merged together to form the crimson divine flames. Bit by bit, it burned the old man to dust.

At the back, Qu Hui stood with a face as white and blank as a corpse whose blood was drained completely. He wanted to save Tai Yin when Yun Che plunged his sword into the Guardian again and again, but his body simply refused to obey his thoughts. All he could do was shiver like a leaf.

As the leader of the Adjudicators, Qu Hui was righteous almost to the point of mercilessness. But now, the fearless man was terrified enough to suffer a complete mental collapse.

Tai Yin’s last vestiges of consciousness disappeared only when the flames had burned down almost half his body.

And just like that, an Eternal Heaven Guardian perished under Yun Che’s sword… the sword of a “junior” who was only thirty years old or so.

Bang!

Yun Che tossed the half-corpse away from his sword like it was some disgusting trash. He then swung his sword again to cut through the portable space Tai Yin carried before it could implode upon itself, causing a shower of items to rain from the sky all of a sudden.

A warm, nurturing aura spread across the world in an instant.

It was of course, the Divine Fruit of Absolute Beginning!

The fruit itself was incredibly tiny, but the light it exuded was as bright as any stars in the sky.

The moment the divine fruit appeared from the portable space, the Brahma Gold Soft Sword suddenly let go of Zhou Qingchen and caught the divine fruit a million times faster than a meteor would have.

Once the divine fruit was brought back to Qianye Ying’er’s hand, it vanished into nothing just like that.

Yun Che’s outstretched hand froze for a second before he slowly turned around to face Qianye Ying’er… The Brahma Golden Soft Sword had trapped Zhou Qingchen once again, and Qianye Ying’er looked as calm and unaffected as a breeze. It was almost as if she hadn’t moved at all.

“Uncle… Tai Yin…” Lying flat on the ground, Zhou Qingchen was no longer struggling. As he stared at Tai Yin’s burning corpse, he bit the tip of his tongue in an attempt to wake up from this nightmare. Unfortunately, it didn’t work at all.

Right now, god didn’t exist in the Primal Chaos.

If someone had to be god no matter what, then the Eternal Heaven Guardians were the most qualified candidates.

This was the view of the masses and Zhou Qingchen as well.

Zhu Liu was dead, and now Tai Yin too before the former could even have a proper burial… Not only had Tai Yin died right before his eyes, he had died at the hands of Yun Che!

The world turned upside down in Zhou Qingchen’s head before graying. He couldn’t even feel pain or fear anymore...

Yun Che slowly looked away from Qianye Ying’er before focusing on Qu Hui. The old man looked like his soul had been dragged out of his husk. He said emotionlessly, “Kill yourself.”

“...” Qu Hui still didn’t move a muscle. His lips parted slightly, but he couldn’t utter a single sound.

“Waste of time,” Qianye muttered to herself before moving her fingers. Divine Oracle immediately responded to her movement and passed through Qu Hui’s body in an instant.

There was no profound explosion or the sound of cutting space. In fact, there was almost no sound at all. When the golden light returned back to Qianye Ying’er’s hands, Qu Hui’s body suddenly crumbled to the floor in nine tidy pieces. Each body part rolled far away in a different direction.

The old man hadn’t struggled in the slightest.

This time, Qianye Ying’er wrapped the weapon back around her waist instead of using it to trap Zhou Qingchen like before. The prince was still trembling uncontrollably and looking completely unfocused on the floor.

Qianye Ying’er turned away, too haughty to look at Zhou Qingchen for even a second longer. She also didn’t mention the Divine Fruit of Absolute Beginning at all. She asked in an indifferent tone, “What are you going to do to him?”

She was sure that Yun Che wouldn’t kill Zhou Qingchen directly.

The amount of hate in his heart could fill up the entire abyss. There was no way he would let the son of Eternal Heaven escape with an easy death!

Yun Che stopped in front of Zhou Qingchen and looked down on his pale face. He smiled coldly and said, “Brother Qingchen, the dogs of Eternal Heaven seem pretty useless, don’t you think?”

“It’s one thing if they’re only useless, but this blood! It’s so cheap and nauseating!”

Boom!!

Yun Che pushed his palm backwards, burying Qu Hui and Tai Yin’s bloodstained corpses completely in a cloud of dust and sand.

Zhou Qingchen shuddered and returned to himself as if his soul was stabbed by a poisoned blade. Although he was still shivering uncontrollably, his mind had regained its clarity and calm. He looked up toward Yun Che and said angrily, “My father was right. You… have turned into a devil!”

He meant “devil”, not a “devil person”.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know that his words were nothing more than a hilarious joke to Yun Che.

Yun Che smiled at Zhou Qingchen without a trace of anger or killing intent. He said, “That’s right, I’m the devil. You won’t find a more evil devil than me in this world… and very soon, everyone in the Eternal Heaven God Realm and the God Realm itself will learn just how evil I can be.”

Zhou Qingchen’s pupils widened unconsciously as Yun Che stared at him… The young man’s smile was gentle and warm, but Zhou Qingchen felt like every pore in his body was shaking with fear.

“Kill… kill me.” Zhou Qingchen had to grit his teeth to stop them from chattering in fear. “Royal father… has always blamed himself for what he did… he has always felt regret for what he did… that’s why he wanted to retire and cultivate in peace… if I die at your hands, then father can finally put this all behind him… one day, he’ll take revenge for me and kill you with his own hands!”

“He… feels regret toward me? He blames himself... for what he did to me?” The corner of Yun Che’s mouth twitch slightly. He wanted to look at the sky and laugh like a madman. He had seen and heard countless jokes in the past, but there hadn’t been one that could make him laugh for a thousand days and nights until now!

“So, your royal father feels regret toward a devil. Surely the heavens will weep before such greatness.” Yun Che extended his hand and grabbed Zhou Qingchen by his collar. Behind his seemingly calm eyes hid two wild flames that threatened to shatter his mask. He said in a low, quiet voice:

“Right now, I have nothing but a black heart and soul. My home, my family, my wives, my daughter, they’re all gone.”

“However, the one who gave me all of this… that great father of yours, has countless children and grandchildren. He even has a son he can be proud of, you.”

His face moved closer and closer. “Tell me, how do you think I should repay him?”